Airplanes under satellite surveillance

Recently several passenger aircraft have disappeared without a trace and have not been found. In order to prevent such situations, Aireon has developed a special satellite tracking system called GlobalBeacon. It will continually control the position of each machine.

The Malaysia Airlines MH370, which was lost in 2014, is the best example of the fact that a large passenger plane, with several hundred passengers on board, may disappear without a trace. And in spite of all communication systems, emergency transmitters and other equipment, which theoretically should be able to find, even if wrecked, in the event of a machine breakdown.

The solution could be the GlobalBeacon system, which Aireon engineers designed for satellite tracking of objects. It will work with the FlightAware flight tracking system and its full operational capability is expected to be available as early as 2018.

GlobalBeacon will use Iridium Communications’s low-satellity satellite, which will be able to track the position of an aircraft equipped with this technology in real time. Aireon’s technology was originally created as an additional tool for flight controllers to improve the efficiency of the use of air corridors. FlightAware, however, wants to use it for machine tracking.